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I study girls’ and women’s mental health, and students in one of my classes recently brought a disturbing product to my attention: the Waist Trainer.
These so-called “trainers” have been extremely popular for the past 4-5 years and are widely publicized by celebrities such as the Kardashians, who endorse them to their millions of combined followers, most of whom are adolescent girls. As a counselor, an educator, and most of all as a parent of an adolescent girl, I was taken aback when I heard about these products: Why would something like this still be promoted to girls in the year 2020? And what are girls learning from the message that they should wear a potentially painful device to shrink their waists in order to be considered attractive?
What Is a Waist “Trainer”?
Even if you haven’t heard of them, I’m sure you have seen an image of one because they have been around since the 1600s: They are the equivalent of a corset. They are contraptions that wrap tightly around your waist and lower rib cage that are designed with fasteners that you are to pull as tightly as possible to cinch your waist so that it will appear as small as possible. The wearers are instructed to wear the “trainer” up to eight hours a day, including during exercise, for six weeks, with the promise that after doing so they will achieve a perfect, hourglass shape.
According to an Instagram post by Kloe Kardashian, who posted a selfie in her waist trainer while kneeling on what looks like the floor of her closet:
“I’m obsessed with the gym but a little help never hurt nobody. @waistgangsociety and @premadonna87 keep my waist snatched and posture perfect. Once you try it, you will become obsessed!”
At my last viewing, this post had well over 900,000 likes.
Why Should We Be Concerned?
Why should parents and people concerned about girls' well-being be concerned about a product endorsed by celebrities that cinches their waists?
- First of all, we don’t want young girls to fall prey to false advertising. The product’s marketers are falsely advertising to girls who follow the Kardashians and many others who want to shrink their waist size and obtain the hourglass figure of celebrity Influencers. However, the waist trainers are not “trainers” at all; it is merely a device that squeezes your waist and ribs together as long as you wear it. There is no evidence that it can create a permanently smaller waist when you take it off. “Temporary waist cincher” might be an accurate descriptor; “waist trainer” is not. Some people say they eat less while wearing it (because it is so tight) and some people sweat more while wearing it, but ultimately it does not create any lasting results.
- Second, there is some evidence that waist trainers can cause medical harm. Because the wearer needs to cinch the material as tightly as possible, skin irritation, such as chafing and rashes, and even bone bruising can easily occur. Acid reflux and heartburn are common, as the stomach is pressed higher and increases the likelihood of acid in the esophagus. Due to restricted blood flow to the compressed area, numbness in the legs can also occur. Finally, it affects breathing. The diaphragm is restricted, less oxygen is taken in, and the wearer is unable to take a deep, full breath. As we know the physical and psychological benefits of deep breathing, it is concerning if a girl or woman is not able to breathe fully and deeply (See Mugnolo, 2019 for more information about health risks).
- Third, these devices can cause psychological harm. They reinforce messages such as: “My value comes from my physical appeal”; “I am not enough as I am”; “I am not good enough if I don’t have an hourglass shape” and “I need to disguise my natural shape because it is not acceptable as it is”. If girls listen to the celebrity claims: “If you just wear your trainer longer and maybe cinch it a bit tighter, then you can receive world-wide attention just like us” they can start to believe that the ideal is attainable if they just try harder. They can become even more dissatisfied with themselves and their body shape when they take the trainer off and don’t see any changes. As body dissatisfaction is a leading risk factor for a host of negative mental health outcomes, including depression, low self-esteem, and disordered eating, this is cause for concern.
Many of today’s girls aren’t aware that waist trainers are not really anything new. They may not be aware that for centuries the corset (and later, the girdle) were devices that women of certain socially assigned statuses and classes were required to wear in order to achieve the desired female shape: an impossibly tiny waist and an hourglass figure. It was indeed considered liberating for women when they moved into a new era in the later 1900s in which they could choose to be free of these devices and in which they could feel comfortable in their clothing. Women became free to actually take a deep breath.
Of course, today’s adult women are free to make their own choices, and if they choose to wear such a contraption in order to temporarily appear to have a smaller waist, that is fully their decision. However, my concern is for the young girls who are bombarded with these ads (often disguised as Instagram posts) that lead to viral trends on social media. Younger girls are not yet able to make sound judgments about whether these claims are true or to think critically about the messages about beauty they are receiving (e.g., “Looking good is more important than how I feel”; “I must shrink myself in order to gain attention or to be acceptable”; “If I don’t have an hourglass shape, then I am not okay”).
I have an adolescent daughter, and I know this is the opposite of the kind of message I want her to hear about her identity and self-worth. I want her to accept her body shape and size just as it is. I want her to be comfortable, not suffering in a modern corset, as she goes throughout her day. I want her to have the freedom to pursue the things she loves to do without being constricted. And most of all, I want her to be able to breathe!
A Call To Breathe
Let’s make sure that all girls are armed with the knowledge that they do not have to stifle or shrink themselves in order to live fully in this world. Let’s help them know that their worth is not based on their waist measurement or anything about their body shape or size. Let’s keep girls moving forward towards freedom and authenticity, not backward towards the 1600s when many women were tied so tightly in their corsets that they could barely breathe.
**Special thanks to Joanna Shepherd, clinical mental health counseling graduate student (in her final semester!) for her contributions to this blog post.
